Electrical code Compliance - Electrical requirements for photovoltaic inverter

Author

Electrical requirements for photovoltaic inverter

wolmull

2005-11-30, 11:21 am

Electrical requirements for photovoltaic inverter

Hi NG,

I need information about electrical safety requirements for
photovoltaic inverter in various country's.

For example in Germany the inverter need a over/undervoltage
protection, over/under-frequency protection, a protection against
DC-current (into the grid) and a line-impedance-measure (alternative a
three-phase-voltage-monitoring). For inverter without a transformer we
need a ground fault circuit interrupter. The standards printed at
VDE0126 and VDEW (germany).
The USA don't want inverter without a transformer.

Which requirements have other country's?

Best regards
Wolfgang

Paul E. Bennett

2005-11-30, 3:21 pm

wolmull wrote:

> Electrical requirements for photovoltaic inverter
>
> Hi NG,
>
> I need information about electrical safety requirements for
> photovoltaic inverter in various country's.
>
> For example in Germany the inverter need a over/undervoltage
> protection, over/under-frequency protection, a protection against
> DC-current (into the grid) and a line-impedance-measure (alternative a
> three-phase-voltage-monitoring). For inverter without a transformer we
> need a ground fault circuit interrupter. The standards printed at
> VDE0126 and VDEW (germany).
> The USA don't want inverter without a transformer.
>
> Which requirements have other country's?
>
> Best regards
> Wolfgang

Use the correct standards to start with and you will find compliance issues
easier to deal with. Since Europe has harmonised its safety standards you
will find we are using a more international standards framework (ISO and
IEC).

I'll deal with the IEC ones and leave you to look up the ISO ones.

IEC 60146-2
IEC/TS 61287-2
IEC 61377
IEC 61727
IEC 62093

You will also probably find that you may need to refer to a number of other
standards depending on your specific design.

Ref:-
http://www.iec.ch/cgi-bin/procgi.pl...trical%20safety

Others of the regulars may also have some comments to help you out.

--
********************************************************************
Paul E. Bennett ....................<email://peb@amleth.demon.co.uk>
Forth based HIDECS Consultancy .....<http://www.amleth.demon.co.uk/>
Mob: +44 (0)7811-639972
Tel: +44 (0)1235-811095
Going Forth Safely ..... EBA. www.electric-boat-association.org.uk..
********************************************************************

wolmull

2005-12-02, 6:21 am

Hi Paul,

> IEC 60146-2
About Semiconductor converters -> no interresting
> IEC/TS 61287-2
"Power convertors installed on board railway rolling stock" -> no
interresting
> IEC 61377
"Electric traction - Rolling stock -..." -> no interresting

> IEC 61727
"Photovoltaic (PV) systems - Characteristics of the utility interface"
This could be interresting for me.
Do you know witch countrys require this compliance?

> IEC 62093
"Balance-of-system components for photovoltaic systems - Design
qualification natural environments" -> no interresting

Best regards
Wolfgang

Dave Slee

2005-12-02, 3:21 pm

"wolmull" <wolmull@gmx.de> wrote in message
news:1133363039.455373.272310@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Electrical requirements for photovoltaic inverter
>
> Hi NG,
>
> I need information about electrical safety requirements for
> photovoltaic inverter in various country's.
>
> For example in Germany the inverter need a over/undervoltage
> protection, over/under-frequency protection, a protection against
> DC-current (into the grid) and a line-impedance-measure (alternative a
> three-phase-voltage-monitoring). For inverter without a transformer we
> need a ground fault circuit interrupter. The standards printed at
> VDE0126 and VDEW (germany).
> The USA don't want inverter without a transformer.
>
> Which requirements have other country's?
>
> Best regards
> Wolfgang
>

In the UK, you will need to comply with the harmonised European Directives,
but in addition you will need to comply with the Energy Networks Association
G83 standard available for purchase from:

http://www.electricity.org.uk/

The requirements in the UK are not dissimilar to the rest of Europe,
especially in terms of the protective functions. Certainly the majority of
the inverters I have looked at are compliant with all of the requirements
for Europe, usually by complying with the toughest set of requirements. I
haven't studied the German requirements but I'm sure they are on a par with
those in the UK.

To give you an idea of how many standards you will need to refer to for UK
compliance, here is the list of references we are using in a project we are
doing at the moment in our lab:

Electricity Safety, Quality and Continuity Regulations (ESQCR) The
Electricity Safety, Quality and Continuity Regulations 2002 - Statutory
Instrument Number 2665 -HMSO ISBN 0-11-042920-6

BS 7671: 2001 Requirements for Electrical Installations IEE Wiring
Regulations Sixteenth Edition.

BS EN 61000-3-2: 2000 Limits for harmonic current emissions (equipment input
current up to and including 16 A per phase).

BS EN 61000-3-3: 2000 Limitation of voltage fluctuations and flicker in low
voltage supply systems for equipment with rated current of 16 A per phase
and not subject to conditional connection. (Amendment 1 of 2001)

BS EN 61034-4: 1995 Methods for determining synchronous machine quantities
from tests.

IEC 60255-5: 1977 (BS 5992 Part 3) Electrical Relays Electrical Relays:
Specification for the Insulation Testing of Electrical Relays.

IEC 60364-7-712 Electrical installations of buildings - Part 7-712:
Requirements for special installations or locations - Solar photovoltaic
(PV) power supply systems.

IEC 60725 Considerations on reference impedances for use in determining the
disturbance characteristics of household appliances and similar electrical
equipment.

IEC 60909-1: 1988 Short circuit calculation in three-phase ac systems.

IEC 62282-3-2 Fuel cell technologies - Part 3-2: Stationary fuel cell power
plants - Test methods for the performance.

Engineering Recommendation G83/1 (2003) Recommendations for the connection
of small scale embedded generators (up to 16A per phase) in parallel with
public low-voltage distribution networks.

Engineering Recommendation G5/4 (2001) Planning levels for harmonic voltage
distortion and the connection of non-linear equipment to transmission and
distribution networks in the United Kingdom.

Engineering Recommendation G59/1, Amendment 1 (1995) Recommendations for the
Connection of Embedded Generating Plant to the Regional Electricity
Companies' Distribution Systems.

Engineering Recommendation P28 (1989) Planning limits for voltage
fluctuations caused by industrial, commercial and domestic equipment in the
United Kingdom.

Engineering Recommendation P29 (1990) Planning limits for voltage unbalance
in the UK for 132 kV and below.

Engineering Technical Report No. 113, Revision 1 (1995) Notes of Guidance
for the Protection of Embedded Generating Plant up to 5 MW for Operation in
Parallel with Public Electricity Suppliers' distribution systems.

That's a fair old list and will certainly do some damage to the company
credit card when you go to BSi, ISO or IEC to buy copies of them all.

[Time for A Shameless Plug]

I work for NaREC, the New and Renewable Energy Centre in the UK. We are busy
putting the finishing touches to our new electrical engineering test
laboratory at the moment. We would be most happy to talk with you about any
testing requirements you might have, especially testing of micro renewables
devices such as PV and wind inverters. One of our test cells looks like a
bomb site right now with all the instruments, load banks and controls for a
G83 compliance test on a client's inverter.

www.narec.co.uk

Dave Slee
Engineering Specialist
NaREC
Work: dave.slee@narec.co.uk
Home: dave.slee@rmec.co.uk

Paul E. Bennett

2005-12-02, 5:21 pm

wolmull wrote:

> Hi Paul,

> "Photovoltaic (PV) systems - Characteristics of the utility interface"
> This could be interresting for me.
> Do you know witch countrys require this compliance?

All of European Community countries for starters. You will also find a close
correlation to these standards being used in other countries like Australia
and USA. I am glad that one of the list seems to be of interest to you.

What I do to minimize costs associated with working with the standards is to
pay a visit to a library (eg: British Library at St. Pancras, London) that
has access to the standards on-line, evaluate the appropriateness of the
standard and only buy it if it truly is relevant.

--
********************************************************************
Paul E. Bennett ....................<email://peb@amleth.demon.co.uk>
Forth based HIDECS Consultancy .....<http://www.amleth.demon.co.uk/>
Mob: +44 (0)7811-639972
Tel: +44 (0)1235-811095
Going Forth Safely ..... EBA. www.electric-boat-association.org.uk..
********************************************************************

billb@abc.net

2006-02-03, 5:21 pm

If you are testing an grid connected inverter for safety, normally the
standard used is EN 50178 Electronic Equipment for use in power
installations.

BiilB

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